


Orders are Orders

by Elendiliel



Series: Lightning Strikes [3]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Order 66 (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 23:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28590603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elendiliel/pseuds/Elendiliel
Summary: An ordinary day for Lightning Squadron suddenly becomes extraordinary - for all the wrong reasons.
Series: Lightning Strikes [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2087898
Kudos: 5





	Orders are Orders

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, I wrote this far too early in the series, and then had to fill the gap with a couple of fix-it fics (which will be published soon) and some retroactive editing. Please let me know whether or not it works.

It started out as a normal day. Well, as normal as days ever were for Lightning Squadron. General Helli Abbasa’s five-person unit (or four and a half, taking Echo’s part-time status into consideration) was a multi-purpose strike team, which on any given day could be found stealing secrets, breaking sieges, guarding supplies, or doing anything else best done by a small, cohesive group. Their latest assignment was sabotage. A small Separatist outpost, new, not high-value in and of itself but strategically located. Busywork, by their standards.

The mission was more than half done. Inactive droids littered the corridors around the outpost’s command centre, where Spark had just finished duplicating the base’s computer cores onto a datastick. Echo and Fives had wired the room with enough explosive to shred everything in it, but nothing outside its doors once they were sealed. Helli was standing guard at the one operative exit, sabre drawn and senses on high alert. Torrent was manning the commlink, reporting their progress and being updated on the status of their extraction team. They planned to go out the same way they’d come in – cables up to a gunship as it passed overhead.

Helli almost didn’t hear it. She was focused on exterior threats, and Echo and Fives couldn’t work without bickering sometimes. It was pure chance that they had shut up temporarily when the Chancellor’s voice became audible over Torrent’s comm. “Execute Order 66.”

Her mind on possible attack from droids they’d missed, or who had recovered from the EMPs they used, Helli didn’t bother working out what Order 66 was. Not until she felt a blaster at her back and Torrent said, “I’m sorry, Hel. You know how it is.”

The pieces slotted together as Helli turned to face her sergeant. The way the Seps always seemed to know too much, especially at Senate level, even allowing for espionage. Key anti-escalation legislation being shot down; pro-escalation laws mysteriously slipping through. Palpatine’s careful speeches, spreading rumours and seeding ideas by denying them. The creation of the clone army years before the war began, under such clouded circumstances. Without an army, the Republic would have had a much stronger incentive to seek peace. No wonder Palpatine had accepted the clones so quickly. He’d arranged for them in the first place. And now he controlled them. Those perishing chips. She remembered too late that they hadn’t managed to remove all of Torrent’s. It was enough, clearly.

Helli looked Torrent in the eyes. She knew him as well as she knew herself. She couldn’t outrun him, or, when he was in this state, outfight him without severely injuring or killing him, which wouldn’t have been an option even if he hadn’t been her beloved brother. (Presumably the others thought the same way, or they’d have intervened.) She wouldn’t demean either of them by begging. And reasoning wouldn’t work, not now. Well, there were worse ways to go. She switched off her sabre and slipped it back into her belt, then took a deep breath.

“I know. Do what you must. But can I do one thing first? I promise I won’t try to escape.”

“Of course, General.” He never normally called her that in the field these days. Distancing himself from her? Too bad. Before he could react, she stepped forward and kissed him, revelling in the sensations she’d been too shocked to notice the first time they’d kissed, in an alley on Coruscant. The ripples of pleasure lighting up her body. The warmth and strength of his presence, both physical and in the Force. She broke away before things could get awkward and moved back, meeting his eyes again.

“Something to remember me by. Don’t mourn for me, or regret your actions. Just let the Force guide you, and I’ll still have your back.” She reached for her sabre again, carefully keeping her fingers well away from the controls. She would not die empty-handed, but nor would she fight her brother. Then she closed her eyes so that he wouldn’t have to watch as the light faded from them, and waited for darkness to consume her.

***

It was quite a shock to open her eyes again and find that she was still in her body. That, or souls ached the same way, and the afterlife included Echo. He was kneeling beside her, armourless, a welcome-back smile on his face. Behind him, she could just make out Fives, Spark and what looked like the interior of a ship. Cargo hold of a freighter, at a guess.

“How do you feel?”

“Apart from a blinding headache and considerable confusion, fine, thanks. What _happened_?”

“Order 66. The Emperor had our creators implant a command in all of us – kill the Jedi. That’s what the chips were for. Just as well we got rid of ours. He’s been planning this for a while – and so have we. Every operation we’ve done for months, we’ve had a strategy in place for this situation.”

“How in _blazes_ did I not realise?”, Helli asked herself aloud. Then something Echo had said caught up with her. “The _Emperor_?”

“The Chancellor reorganised the Republic. It’s now an Empire, and he’s at the head of it.” Helli had her work cut out just not cursing. This was Palpatine’s plan all along. That treacherous, double-dealing…

“Won’t they notice you’re gone?”

“I doubt it.” Spark had taken over. “As far as anyone else is concerned, General Abbasa was executed for treason, but managed to set off a roomful of explosives in the process, killing almost all her team. Only Sergeant Torrent escaped.”

“Torrent stayed behind?” Helli wasn’t exactly surprised, except at the sadness and emptiness within her heart.

“We need a man on the inside. And it had to look good. An explosion with no bodies – that looks too much like a cover-up. They’ll know how close we are – were. Torrent insisted on staying in the army. He said you’d understand.”

“I do.” They’d been on self-imposed probation since that first kiss. One more infraction, and they’d have to take steps. He knew she wouldn’t stop being a Jedi, or living by the Code, if she could help it, and had removed himself as a source of temptation. They were both creatures of duty. “Have you heard from anyone else?”

“Commander Rex and Commander Cody have made contact through covert channels. Ahsoka Tano and General Kenobi escaped the first wave, at least. We don’t know of any other survivors, but it’s possible.”

Only Helli’s training was keeping her together. So many deaths… But the past could not be changed. The future could. “What happens now?”

“We’re headed for Tatooine. Mos Eisley. From there, we can board a ship to just about anywhere in the galaxy. We could disappear, forget all about this. Or keep fighting.”

“Which would you prefer?” Helli addressed all three of them, and they exchanged identical looks. Fives spoke first.

“We want to keep fighting. You know what the Seps and even the Republic were like at times, and we think the Empire’s going to be worse. Without the Chancellor giving us orders, we can do some real good at last. But it’s your decision, General.”

“You said it yourselves; General Abbasa is dead.” Helli stood, only a little unsteadily, and threaded her sabre (which had been by her hand) back through her belt. “I’m just Hel.”

**Author's Note:**

> The next story in this series is a direct follow-up to this one. Reading them together might fill in some of the gaps in each. Or not. I'd be interested to know what you think so far.


End file.
